River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1887-08-25
chatsworth and Ashtahula.

ulu not one KNOW lnat tneA eAlst-
Chatsworth and AshtabuIa.
The only railway accident in the an
nails of the country which affords am
approach parallel to the shocking dis
aster at Chatsworth, H., was the Ash
tabula, Ohio, horror of the night Of
December %, 1876. Ii was a bitterly
cold, clustering winter night, Trair
No. 5, on the Lake Shore and Michigan
Southern road, known as the Pacific Elk
press, was whirling along through the
cold lake winds and driving snow drifts
from Buffalo to Cleveland. The train,
which consisted of eleven coaches. was,
owing to the heavy snow drifts, being
pulled by two engines. There were
about l75 passengers on the train. 1t
was during the holiday season, and
many of the passengers were on their
way to spend their approaching New
Years day reunited with friends, rela
tives or loved ones. Alas. for most of
the passengers on the Inflated train
that day of reunion never came. "Im-
agine the scene if you can." said the
Enquirer's graphic special dispatcher,
from the spot on the day following. "A
bleak winter night. Close upon the
shores of Lake Erie. in gale from the
northeast, driving before il binding
snow storm, which has already stretched
great snowdrifts across every roadway
and in every fence-corner and covered
the railroad track to the depth of sever
al feet in many places. The Pacific
Express train. due at Ashtabula ut 5:l5
p. M, is nearly three hours late, and
comes plunging across the railroad
bridge drawn by two massive engines
Below is frightful chasm, some 90
feet in depth, and directly below the
span of l55 feet in length is the river
bed thickly incased in ice Such was
the scene just previous to the disaster,
which will make the name of Ashtabula
symbolical of all that is horrible. The
foremost locomotive had just fairly
passed the middle span when its en-
gineer, Mcclure, says he heard Il
strange voice behind him. and almost
instinctively he sprang to the lever and
gave the engine full head of steam, to
which she quickly responded and
bounded forward with such force as to
break her coupling with the second
engine and reached terra firma Just as
the second locomotive, together with
the whole train and the bridge, plunged
into the abyss below. No one could do
justice to the scene of horror which
followed in the bed of the river beneath.
Many of the ears turned complete
somersault in their descent and were
shivered to atoms. The heavy IRON
work of the bridge, with ties, rails, car
wheels, detached blocks of ice, and
splintered ears heaped together in one
heterogeneous mass, formed one of the
most awful funeral piles that it was
ever the lot of mortal eyes to gaze
upon.
Within the space of 10 minutes, be-
fore assistance could be obtained. the
flames had started out on their deadly
mission, united with the icy currents
below, to claim every possible victim.
A fire alarm soon brought throng of
ready hands to render all the assistance
in their power. As the flames rapidly
approached. the cries and screams of
the manned and helpless men, women
and children We're heartrending. Many
had become fastened between the splin-
tered timbers. so as to be unable to ex-
tricate themselves, and were enwrapped
by the flames in plain view Of the men
who were working, doing their best to
save some other sufferer. With the aid
of axes and ropes some 65 or 20 per-
sons were taken out of the wreck alive
and carried on stretchers to the houses
and hotels i'm the vicinity which were
freely thrown open. In the attempt to
escape many crawled through the car
windows only to find themselves in the
midst of an icy stream, and "a large
number were drowned. That any should
have escaped alive from the frightful
plunge seems almost miraculous.
One hundred lives went out in the
LtAAAbtC bt@ti iCetp VI AliC dtibC tA llitSS
on that bitter winter night. The bridge.
the giving way of which caused the
horror, was Howe truss, built entirely
of iron, and about II years old 1t was
90 feet above the river, and had an
arch $50 feet long in the clear, the
whole length of the bridge being 157
feet. 1t was built in the Cleveland
shops, and had been tested with six
locomotives. The general accepted
theory was that the giving way of the
bridge was the result of the contraction
of the iron, caused by the intensely cold
weather A great hue and cry was
raised at the time of the disaster that
the railroad officials were culpable, as
the bridge had been in an unsafe con-
dition for some time. Whether this was
false or true, the accusation made such
deep impression on the sensitive ma
ture of Charles Collins, the chief en-
gineer of the road. that he shortly
afterwards committed suicide, the rash
act being directly attributable to the
charges of criminal carelessness laid at
his door. Engineer Collins death by
his own hand was the last bloody act
in the terrible Ashtabula tragedy
Cincinnati ENQUIRER.